Commemoration
by BookHobbit
Summary: Pippin faces a challenge in his life at a time when he should be joyful, but finds a way to overcome it. Also featuring Diamond, Merry, and Estella. No slash. COMPLETE


Title: Commemoration  
  
Author: BookHobbit  
  
Rating: G  
  
Category: Drama  
  
Notes/Disclaimer: The characters (even the invented ones) are not mine, they are Professor Tolkien's and I borrow and return them with the utmost care and respect. Feedback is always encouraged. :-) This was written as part of Marigold's Challenge 2, in which I was given a few starting lines and instructed to write a story with them as the opening. For some reason I can't use astericks, so whenever you see "##" take that as a pause like you would for astericks. Thank you.  
  
15 Rethe (March), 1430 SR - Crickhollow  
  
Pippin sat bolt upright in his bed, gasping. The nightmares had been merciless of late. Hopefully he hadn't woken Diamond. This was the third time this week. Why couldn't he leave this in the past, where it belonged?  
  
"Pippin?" Diamond said sleepily. He jumped slightly in surprise before he could stop himself. She put a hand on his arm as he struggled to control his breathing. "What's wrong, love?"  
  
Pippin shook his head. "Nothing, dearest. I'm fine. I didn't mean to wake you." He turned to her suddenly. "The babe...?"  
  
Diamond chuckled. "Is still asleep, I'm sure. Or if not, wondering why his da woke up in the middle of the night so panic-stricken." She slowly achieved a sitting position, hampered by her protruding stomach. "Which is what I am wondering."  
  
"I don't know." He raked his fingers through his curls. "Bad dreams, I suppose."  
  
Knowing her husband well enough to be certain this was not the full truth, but rather the most he was willing to give, Diamond wisely put the topic on the shelf for the moment. "Have you decided on a name yet?"  
  
Pippin grinned and replied casually, "No." Diamond laughed and rested her head on his shoulder. He put an arm around her and hugged her carefully. "Do you think I should have one prepared soon?"  
  
"I hope, but Daisy said it might be another three weeks when I spoke with her last week," Diamond sighed. Daisy Hazelwood was the healer at Brandy Hall. Diamond looked up at Pippin and smiled mischievously. "No forthcoming Peregrin Took the Second?"  
  
"Now, Di, Sam's already named his latest one Pippin. Would you really inflict three of them upon the Shire at the same time?"  
  
"Do you really think you're such a torment, love?"  
  
"You tell me," Pippin replied as he kissed her gently. He closed his eyes as he rocked her slowly. There were so many names he could think of for his son, so many people he would wish to honor and remember: Merry, Frodo, and Sam; Éomer and Théoden; Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf; Aragorn, Beregond, Boromir, Faramir ...  
  
Denethor ...  
  
Flames, and a Man crying out with his last breath. A roof collapsing. His dearest friend, pale as if already dead and far beyond reach of his voice. High, thin screams of purest evil that still filled him with terror.  
  
His eyes snapped open. "Diamond," he said urgently, "Di!"  
  
She had nearly fallen asleep in his comforting arms, but she awakened quickly and faced him. His eyes were wide and staring without sight at the far wall. Diamond placed her hands on his face and forced him to meet her gaze. "Pippin-love, what is it? Tell me what's wrong!"  
  
He opened his mouth, then shut it again before answering. "Wh-what if it's a lass?"  
  
Diamond frowned inwardly. She perceived easily that the question had not been what had bothered him, but she - unlike her husband - remembered today's date and its significance to him. He had had nightmares before around this time - Merry did as well, Estella said - so she did not press the matter. Pippin needed something else to occupy his thoughts. "Well, I have already picked out proper hobbit names for that occurrence."  
  
"You have?" Pippin questioned, wearing the curious look on his face that had first made her fall in love with him.  
  
She smiled. "Yes. If she has the Tookish eyes of your family" - she lightly tapped him on the nose, causing him to blink - "she will be Emerald. If she has the light blue eyes of the North-tooks, however, she will be Sapphire."  
  
A smile lit up his face. "Those are wonderful, Di!" He kissed her again, and she giggled like a tween.  
  
"I'm glad you approve. Now, off to sleep, or you shall be too tired in the morning to do anything."  
  
"Yes, Mum," he answered cheekily, and she poked him in the sides where he was most ticklish. He squawked and leapt up again, nearly falling off the bed.  
  
"Good night, love," she said serenely.  
  
Pippin watched her sleep for a few moments. "Good night, my sparkling jewel," he murmured, kissing her cheek lightly and soon falling asleep himself.

##

"Oh, Pip, do sit down. You're making me dizzy," Merry told his cousin, who was currently wearing a circle into the rug in front of the fireplace.  
  
"I can't, Merry. I'm too nervous. What if something happens? The babe wasn't to be born for weeks, Di told me so last night!" Pippin rubbed at his eyes in tired annoyance.  
  
From his position on his favorite large, overstuffed chair at the opposite end of the room, Merry watched Pippin pacing while he absent-mindedly rocked the two small beds with his feet. His sleeping twins had been moved into the sitting room for the duration of the night, or however long it would take. His mouth twisted into a slight grimace of fear and worry.  
  
It.  
  
It was what was bothering his cousin - Diamond had gone into labor early, but luckily the healer had been on her way for her weekly visit. Daisy had arrived not half an hour after their wives had disappeared into the chamber termed the sick room, and had only come out once to demand hot water and towels. Merry and Pippin had scurried to oblige her, and then she vanished again without any word on Diamond's progress. Pippin had intermittently marched the length of the room since then. "Everything is fine, Pip. Don't you think they would have informed us if something had happened?"  
  
Hope filled Pippin's eyes as he met his cousin's unwavering gaze. "You think so?" he asked, and Merry felt as if Pippin was a teen again, for just a moment. Then the memories receded, and he was forty-seven and Pippin thirty-nine.  
  
"I know so," he answered firmly.  
  
Pippin collapsed into the chair beside him. The groan of one of the twins waking stopped whatever he had been going to say, and both of them looked down. Little Éowyn's eyes opened and regarded them questioningly for a moment until she smiled. "Da! Unc Pip!" she squealed. Pippin lifted her from her bed as Éomer's eyes fluttered and Merry picked him up.  
  
"Good morning, Wynnie," Pippin said, using his pet name for her, "though it's a bit late in the day to say that. Better 'Good evening' or 'Good twilight'." She giggled at his foolishness and batted him on the nose with a tiny fist. "Ouch! Why are all the lasses hitting me today?"  
  
"Probably because you deserve it," Merry replied.  
  
Pippin pulled a face that made the twins laugh. Éomer stuck his fist in his mouth and giggled around it. Éowyn flailed her arm towards Pippin again, and he shifted her in his grasp to avoid it. "Stop that, little lassie."  
  
"Not little," she insisted. "Mer little. 'M big!"  
  
"Wyn little," Éomer managed to object with his hand still blocking his mouth. "Not Mer."  
  
"Mer little!"  
  
"Wyn!"  
  
"Mer!"  
  
"Children," Merry said sternly. "Don't fight."  
  
"Where Mum an' Aunt Dimen?" Éowyn asked, as she suddenly realized they weren't present.  
  
Merry and Pippin exchanged glances. Merry nodded at his cousin. Pippin sighed and began to answer when Éowyn interrupted. "Unc Pip sad?"  
  
"No," Pippin answered. "Uncle Pippin is worried about Aunt Diamond."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because of the baby being born."  
  
"Lad baby?" Éomer demanded.  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"Not worry, Unc Pip," Éowyn ordered. "Aunt be good and baby be good too. Unc be happy."  
  
Pippin smiled at her. "I will try."  
  
Merry smiled to himself. He guessed (rightly, had he known it) that Pippin had been too preoccupied with Diamond's well-being to think of the baby as being a child he would have to raise. Merry himself had been rather surprised one day during Estella's pregnancy (which had been nearly three years ago) to comprehend that he was going to be a father. He had wondered around Crickhollow for a week or so in a daze, until Estella had cornered him and flatly asked to know what was bothering him.  
  
"And you had best tell me," she added, with a gleam in her eye that he knew meant she was going to get Pippin to find out if he tried to dodge the question.  
  
"It's only," Merry started, then halted doubtfully. Estella waited patiently for him to continue. "I know you'll be an excellent mother, Estella. You have a way with children - I've seen how you are with Elanor, Frodo-lad, Rosie-lass, and even little Merry-lad. But ... I don't know if I can be a good father to--"  
  
"Merry, this is pure nonsense that I wouldn't have expected from you," Estella cut in curtly. He blinked at her. "You were nearly a second father to Pippin and you're only eight years his elder! You, my love, are a natural caregiver, and there's no possibility of you being anything less than a wonderful, doting father."  
  
But Merry knew such fears had never crossed Pippin's mind. He could still read his cousin like a book - always had been able to, and probably always would - and he knew this. Merry's concerns, however, had been firmly laid to rest as he saw Pippin crooning a quiet Tookish lullaby to his daughter. He looked down and saw Éomer's eyes close slowly. He hummed along to the tune his mother had sung to him for years and he, in turn, had many a time guided Pippin to sleep with it. He admitted to himself with a grin that it sounded better in a Took voice, anyhow.  
  
"And what, may I ask, is so amusing?"  
  
Merry grinned outright as they put the twins back to bed. "Nothing." Pippin watched him, suspicion obvious in his gaze. "You just remind me of an old nurse, that's all."  
  
Pippin puffed up with indignation. "If wasn't for the little ones slumbering and my esteem for your advanced age, I would tussle you to the floor right now."  
  
Merry responded by leaping at him and knocking him to the carpet. There was a silent, but furious scuffle between the cousins that ended with an amused comment from Estella.  
  
"I'm glad to see you two are setting such an admirable example for my dozing babies."  
  
"Estella!" Pippin gasped. He would have leapt to his feet if Merry had not been sitting astride his back with both of his arms locked behind him. He wriggled uselessly for a minute before Merry let him stand with a muttered comment about respecting his elders and betters. He ignored it and queried urgently as to Diamond's condition.  
  
"She's understandably exhausted," Estella replied, noting that 'the lads' - as she and Diamond were wont to refer to their husbands - were hanging on her every word, and Pippin was clearly (though likely unconsciously) holding his breath. Merry walked forward and put an arm around his shoulders as she continued. "I'm delighted to inform you that you are the father of a very healthy lad, Pippin." A moment later and she was grateful Merry had been half-holding him already as Pippin's eyes rolled upward and he nearly swooned.  
  
"Breathe, Pip," Merry instructed through a beaming smile for his cousin. He lowered Pippin to the floor and shot a humorous but helpless look at his wife. "In and out, there's a good lad."  
  
Estella covered a sudden urge to giggle with a cough and knelt beside them. She fanned Pippin with her handkerchief as the Brandybucks slowly forced him back to wakefulness.  
  
"Can I see her?" he was able to ask after a few minutes. "And him? Them?"  
  
"Yes," Estella said. "That's what I was going to tell you."  
  
Pippin stared at Merry in amazement. "Did you hear that, Merry? I have a son!"  
  
"Aye," Merry said, still smiling. "Now do you know what his name will be?"  
  
Pippin paused and answered slowly, "I think I just might."

##

He hesitated in front of the closed door, nervous and unsure. The door suddenly was opened and Daisy came bustling out, carrying a bundle of cloths wrapped into a pile. She pulled the door to behind her before she noticed him waiting uncertainly. She looked him over quickly before her lips curved into a small smile. "Yes, I'd thought you'd be around soon enough. Well, go on in, lad, she's expecting you."  
  
Pippin waited for her to turn into another corridor before taking a deep breath and pushing the door. He peered 'round its edge. Diamond looked up and met his eyes before breaking into one of the happiest faces he'd ever seen her wear. "Oh, Pippin, come see him. He's just so..." she trailed off, unable to find the right words to describe the tiny, blanket-wrapped babe in her arms. "Come see him."  
  
He treaded to the bed quietly and cautiously. Diamond held out their son and, for one of the few times in his life, Peregrin Took was stunned to speechlessness.  
  
"Oh," he echoed his wife. "Di ... he's so perfect."  
  
"That's the word," she agreed, nodding. "He's perfect."  
  
Pippin reached out with a trembling hand and touched the silky smooth cheek. The babe turned to him in his sleep and he continued to stare, entranced, until Diamond's voice broke the silence that had settled around them.  
  
"Would you like to hold him?"  
  
He gazed at her in wonder. "May I?"  
  
"I don't know how I can bear to let go of him," Diamond murmured, "but yes, love. You may."  
  
He treated the babe oh so carefully, hardly daring even to breathe deeply. The lad in his tremulous grasp moved and blinked his eyes open for a moment before settling back into sleep.  
  
"He looks just like you," Diamond whispered.  
  
"Oh, Di," he answered unsteadily. Pippin sat down on the side of the bed and Diamond moved over to make room for him. He rested his back on the headboard and they watched their baby in awe and overwhelming love.  
  
Diamond asked, "I suppose he will have an outlandish name such as Éomer?"  
  
He grinned crookedly at her. "Only if you like Faramir."  
  
She smiled and nestled into his one armed embrace. "I think it's wonderful."  
  
Not half an hour later, Merry and Estella peeped into the room and turned to each other with smiles as the new, completely content family slept on. 

Finis


End file.
